STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1274

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 474

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 474, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE OF HAWAII MUSEUM OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate federal funds to sustain and support the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Bishop Museum, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, Society for Hawaiian Archaeology, and four individuals.

Your Committee finds that the State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, also known as Bishop Museum, serves a pivotal and integral role in education, research, and preservation and advancement of culture and science. The Bishop Museum's collections encompass more than twenty-five million catalogued objects. The Bishop Museum's researchers have also discovered over seventeen thousand species of plants, animals, and insects throughout the Pacific region in addition to other discoveries related to migration, settlement, and daily life of Pacific peoples. This measure provides continued support to the State Museum of Natural and Cultural History to ensure the stories of Hawaii and other Pacific nations can be shared with residents, tourists, and the rest of the world.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 474, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

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CHRIS LEE, Chair